Connection
by ArcadiaArden
Summary: Sometimes it can be the moment when touch is impossible that intimacy becomes alive. Rizzles, Rated M for strong content.
1. Chapter 1

Rizzoli & Isles – I certainly don't own them. I give a lot of credit to the people that do and thank them for letting me mess about with them for a bit.

Fair warning, I just wrote this over the weekend and therefore I'm not giving it the time to sit before I reread to try to catch/edit. I also took a smidge of liberty with the science, places etc. Poor Billy Elliot was victimized only because it was streaming as I was writing. I love the movie, if you haven't seen it please do :)

Many thanks and credit for the story theme to' tattoo me1969'. Please see the authors note at the end of the last chapter.

M is very much the word on this one.

* * *

Maura swatted lightly at Jane's face. "Stop that, your hair tickles and it's getting in my way."

Jane just leaned further over the back of the couch and rested her chin on Maura's shoulder "Well I'm trying to read about whatever thing you're doing rather than stay in Boston and have a movie night with me."

"Jane."Maura drew the name across her tongue warm and indulgent.

Jane reached over and tipped the laptop screen up a bit "What could possibly be so important at The Epidemiology and Population Health Summer Institute at Columbia University that you're going to miss the premiere Isles home theatre release of Assassination Games?"

"Jane I think the point to this guilt trip is to make movie night more appealing than lecturing at EPIC. Assassination Games as the highlight is not influential."

Jane walked around the couch and flopped down "EPIC huh? Better than PUKE I suppose. However the movie is not supposed to influence you." She bumped their shoulders together. "Spending time with the EPIC'ness that is your best friend is supposed to influence you."

"Hmmm well the best friend is epic but she was also invited to come to New York for the weekend and she did a lot of whining about boutiques and missing the BPD softball game. There may have even been a slight rude comment or two regarding my shoe collection."

"Maura, it's not a game! It's the championship tournament. Let me put this in Isles-ese. Calling the tournament a game is like calling Jimmy Choos BRASH from Payless."

Jane enjoyed watching her quip hit home, loved how it made both of Maura's eyebrows rise until her forehead was creased, loved the crossed arms and the way she bit her lip trying not to laugh. Jane batted her eyes and that did it, laughter escaped.

Maura shook her head and leaned forward, closing the laptop and putting in on the coffee table "You're lucky I like you. I'll be home Saturday evening. I think you'll survive me missing one movie night."

Jane just groaned and turned so she could put both her legs across Maura's lap and lie down with her arm over her eyes. "I'm going to be so bored. Frost and Agent Farrell are going to the House of Blues, Korsak is getting some award from the MSPCA and my mother is going with him. Ewww by the way. "

She waved her free hand in exasperation. "Frankie and Tommy are out communing in the woods or something at DAR State Forest and I'm not sharing a tent with either of them ever again. Plus you're abandoning me to go lecture about," She lifted her arm from her eyes to look at Maura "What exactly again?"

"The course is called The Ethics of Public Health, but I like to focus my lecture on mass behavior changes as influenced by the HIV/AIDS epidemic." She rubbed Jane's legs absently.

Jane sighed. An idea made her sit up on her elbows. "Maur how about we still have movie night?" She pointed to the laptop "We can pick something out on Netflix and watch it together over the phone."

"Oh Jane that is hardly practical, besides, I have dinner with a colleague planned but I'll call you to let you know I made to New York and I'll call you Saturday night when the car service drops me home." The sudden stillness under her hands made her study Jane.

Jane cleared her throat "You're right, I'm just being silly. I should have realized you'd have a date. I'll see you Sunday at dinner." She put her head back down and put arm back over her eyes.

Maura considered her for a long moment before moving a hand down to rub a foot "I never said it was silly Jane. It didn't seem practical because of my dinner plans but if you're not going to have anything better to do, why don't I call you when I get in and you can keep me company until I fall asleep. The movie idea I'll consider if I get to pick. It will be late okay?"

Jane felt her face flush, realizing Maura was changing her plans, feeling a bit childish, but there was only one answer she wanted to give "Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Please see Ch 1 for all the disclaimers and then some

* * *

"Sorry I could only text when I landed. The flight circled JFK for an extra 30 minutes and then I had a conference call on Crowe's case in the car on the way in." Maura wedged the phone between her ear and shoulder as opened up her garment bag and unpacked.

"There were a lot of questions after I finished speaking today too. I barely had time to freshen up for dinner but it is nice to speak with people in my field that are so passionate about maintaining integrity in ethics while dealing with the public." She gently shook her outfit for tomorrow to check for wrinkles and hung it up.

"It's fine. I was busy today anyhow." Jane sighed walking into her bedroom with Jo on her heels. "So how was dinner with Dr. Le Muck? "

"Jane." irritation sharpened Maura's voice.

She sat down on her bed in a huff. "Come on Maura, I heard you mention his name like once. I know that had to come close."

Maura just shook her head as she pulled her bathroom valise out. "Dr. Le Moulec and I had a nice time. I don't get to see people often from my post-doc days and Jean-Christophe was good friend with whom I still enjoy catching up with when we're able. He's actually doing some interesting work with hyperfractionated radiotherapy over at the Institut Curie in Paris."

Jane fell onto her back on her bed. Sometimes she hated the fact that Maura knew all these poised people that did things with names she could barely pronounce. She held up her left hand and studied it for a moment, noticing the thick cuticles, uneven nails, the callous from her time at the gun range and the puckered scar dead center. Maybe she should do something to smooth out the rough edges a little bit.

Maura turned most of the lights off in the hotel room except the two by the bed and sat on the edge with a leg crossed under. The silence on the phone lasted all the way through her pulling her laptop out of her briefcase and logging on. Okay so Jane was upset. She bit her bottom lip mulling over the conversation and situation, taking a deep breath when she figured out why.

Maura's voice in her ear snapped Jane out of her trance. "Stop Jane, whatever you are doing please just stop. People love you just as you are. You know I approve. You're my best friend."

Jane started and let her hand drop. "You are too creepy sometimes Maur. How in the hell do you do that?"

"Do what? Know you?" Maura snorted. "Jane we spend most of our waking hours together between work and social activities."

Jane considered Maura's last statement and a flash of guilt hit her. She did kind of monopolize Maura's time. "Hey, I'm sorry I cut your date short tonight. I didn't really mean to do that."

Maura reclined against the pillows chuckling. "Oh Jane, let's just be truthful. Yes you did. If you didn't want to, you would have either told me not to worry about it yesterday or you would have sent me a message today. You wanted me on this phone tonight. It's honest and you know I always appreciate honesty."

Feeling her face flush Jane rubbed her forehead. There was really no way to reply truthfully that wouldn't embarrass her more.

"It's fine though. If I truly had an issue with it I would still be with Jean right now. You're persuasive Jane but I'm here because I choose to be. "Maura rose from the bed and made her way to the bathroom deciding to change the topic.

She placed the phone down on the marble vanity. "Okay I'm going to put you on speaker and mute the phone while I get ready for bed. I saw on my blackberry that Cindy Tran had sent you and Barry the complete set of reports from forensics but I haven't pulled it up on my laptop yet. What is happening with the Lock & Key case?"

Jane's voice filled the bathroom rising and falling with the intricacies of the case. Colorful review of the interrogation of Belle Bauman making Maura laugh while attempting to brush her teeth, making her regret she had missed the chance to observe that interview in person. Something about watching Jane matching wits with the overly large, supremely assertive owner of Lock & Key was so very intriguing.

Banding her hair up and back Maura took the phone off mute. "Belle is a character, though I find most owners of business in the sex industry need to be to survive."

Jane walked into her kitchen, grabbing a beer. "I don't know. I met a lot of people in my years with Vice and trust me, she is something else. If I were still working vice I'd come up with a way to not charge her with anything just to avoid having to interview her. "

Maura could hear glass hitting Jane's teeth as she drank "Well when I took the DNA sample she was rather intense but polite. Jane, are you drinking? It's 11:30 at night."

"Just having a glass of water" Jane guiltily looked at the bottle.

"I fully believe I'm in New York and not an alternate universe. " Maura walked over to the window to pull the heavy shade and admired the sparkle of the city "Yes, still in New York."

Jane tried to follow "Wait what?"

"I was just remarking that I'm still in New York. I needed to check because landing in an alternate universe is the only way you are drinking water right now."

"Har har har. Great, so happy you're figuring out how to be sarcastic." Jane put the half finished bottle down and went and filled a glass with water, carrying it with her back to her bedroom. "Now I have water, happy?"

Maura decided not to answer as she got comfortable again on the bed and picked up her laptop. "I was thinking we could watch Billy Elliot."

Jane pulled her laptop over and looked the movie up, considering the description. It could be worse and right now she owed Maura. "Whatever you pick, though I'm still cuing Assassination Games up on your jumbotron next time we watch a movie at your house."

Maura made sure Jane could hear her sigh. "Why do you always want to watch violent movies at my house? I'm starting to get a complex."

"You wired the entire place for surround sound. Those movies go boom. You're the genius out of the two of us. Tell me you didn't see that obvious conclusion." Jane watched Billy Elliot start rolling across her laptop screen.

Maura had to laugh a bit. She honestly had thought more about Jane than herself when the system was put in.

The movie rolled through a boy being handed his first pair of ballet shoes. Jane fidgeted. She looked around her room, studied the ceiling. It wasn't that the movie was bad, it was just, with Maura not physically present the silence was making her edgy.

She let her mind wander as distraction, absently considering her day and the case. "You know what? I don't really understand it."

"Don't understand the movie?" Maura watched as Billy Elliot's father stumbled onto his son in the middle of ballet class.

"Movie? Oh, no, the movie is cute Maur. " Jane stretched out on her back. "No I was talking about Lock & Key or really the phone sex business. Never got it when I was in Vice and I don't get it now. I mean the prostitution, the videos, the stores and why Hooters is almost an approved American road trip tradition, all of that is physical. But really, how in the hell is just having someone on the phone breathing heavy and talking dirty work?"

Maura pulled the phone away from her ear to analyze it. This could be entertaining. For all the worldly street smarts Jane's time on the Vice team and Homicide squad had given her, she remained charmingly uncomfortable discussing anything remotely sexual. She cleared her throat a bit as she put the phone back to her ear.

"How the mind processes words is a very physical process, many believe your right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex spends a large amount of energy controlling and regulating your words and how you express yourself every day. "

Maura put her laptop aside "In fact there was some fascinating research that came out over the winter from the University of Berkley. Subjects were given certain words and MRI images of the brain from processing those words were then translated into pictures. In essence if you claim that pornography can cause physical response then words that are converted by your mind certainly work in the same way."

Jane drank some of her water as she thought about it. "Nope, still don't see it. I mean did you know how many people I saw as part of cases that actually ended up addicted to those sex lines? Thousands of dollars or worse all to hear somebody over the phone? I just don't see the appeal."

Maura bit her lower lip, nibbling a bit as she considered the implied challenge Jane was offering.

Even if Maura was relatively certain she didn't know she was offering it.

"I think the appeal is too complex to fully appreciate. It is different person to person and situation to situation. For example a paid transaction in anonymity or a metaphysical connection for separated lovers are two very different circumstances."

Jane dropped the leg she had been holding up as she watched her foot move back and forth while she flexed it. "We're not talking about the nuances here Maura. We're talking about paying for some stranger to pant in your ear. Besides, unpaid for phone sex is for horny teenagers that are out of other options."

Maura filed the last part of Jane's statement away for the future, curious about the story coloring her words with such conclusive resolve. She couldn't help but smile, this night was turning out to be much more entertaining than an evening with Jean. "Are you telling me you have never even had an intimate conversation with say Casey while he is over in Afghanistan? I would have just assumed. Oh Jane, that is very much his loss."

"How is this conversation turning to my lack of a phone sex life with Casey?" Jane could feel herself blushing, suddenly grateful that Maura was not next to her as she reviewed what she had just said "Hold on a second what do you mean by his loss?"

Jane rubbed her forehead rapidly as another thought crawled in "And when you say assume, it means that you probably count phone sex as one of your essential skills for mind body balance and now I can't get that idea out of my head." She turned over onto her stomach so she could groan into her pillow "Oh my god, Maura no, no, no. We really need to work on installing a filter onto that mouth of yours."

Maura had to struggle a bit to understand Jane's muffled last statement but she couldn't help but laugh when she did. She knew she should feel a little guilty for the amount of enjoyment she was having at Jane's expense but this was just too delicious not to push a little further. "By loss I mean your voice Jane. I know you have to have been told this before. When you want your voice is like aged whiskey, deep and smooth with the ability to spread warmth and curl toes. Belle Bauman would make a small fortune off you. "

Maura was pretty sure she heard another muffled, exasperated, groan as she continued. "I don't think that phone sex has anything to do with mind body balance. If two people are physically connected, I think phone sex can be a method to achieve a reaffirmation of their intimate bond over a period of separation. Especially if they know each other well."

Jane rolled back over so she could stare at the ceiling and took a deep breath. She was way out of her depth with Maura right now and a hasty retreat seemed the only option. "Well we both know Belle Bauman would end up on your morgue table if we ever worked together so I think the world is going to remain in the dark about my potential all-star career in phone sex. Now as sad as that makes me, I think we owe poor Billy Elliot here more of our attention."

Maura spared a glance at her laptop screen and considered letting it go, but watching the rest of the movie seemed so bland compared to the little thrill she was getting from pushing Jane's boundaries. "But Jane, I'm not done answering your earlier question about how it works, I was just getting to the example part."

The second Maura used the word example the rapid fire wave of anticipation had Jane violently shaking her head no. Realizing Maura couldn't see her she cleared her throat. Her voice came out a bit dry and cracked to her own ears "I think I'm good. The only example I need right now is the one that shows me how poor Billy here is ever going to get the money together to make it to his audition."

Hearing the tension in Jane's voice, Maura decided to just ignore her attempted retreat. "Like you and I know each other so well. You know what I look like, what my touch feels like and even what perfume I wear. All of that physical stimuli is part of your mental and muscle memory. "

Maura paused to give her words a chance to be processed and to give Jane a chance to respond. When Jane wasn't desperately trying to stop her she continued. "If I said to you right now imagine me sitting beside you in bed, close enough to share the laptop screen, our thighs touching, you would have enough memory to trigger the same sensations as me sitting next to you, close enough to feel the warmth from my leg against yours."

The phone was dead silent in her ear but that didn't indicate permission or objection. Maura didn't even notice her own hand had dropped to her thigh. "I don't have to describe for you what my hand would feel like entwining into yours during the scene where Billy's dad turns the piano into firewood, when we both know I'd feel emotional and need your touch."

Lost in her own game, Maura felt her breathing hitch a bit. "You could imagine what my lips would feel like kissing your hand in gratitude for the understanding, that my perfume would be between us and you'd instinctively breathe it in and pull me closer. I always love that contented sigh you give when I drop my head on your shoulder. "

Maura's voice had softened and quieted "Do you know how hard it is Jane, when we're close like that, not to just run my fingertips over your arm to see if I'd cause goose bumps along your skin, to check and see if you were aware of me as I was of you?"

Jane could feel her heart thudding against her sternum, her lips actually dry. She knew they were crossing a line but this wasn't something she was capable of stopping "You know I would be Maura. It's just the way it is, together or apart I'm always aware of you."

Jane's voice came over the line, low but clear. The implied permission in her statement causing Maura to flex her toes against the bed "I do know Jane. Like I know how whispering my fingers along the soft skin of your arm would raise your awareness just enough that if I looked into your eyes I'd have all the permission I needed to lean over you and trace my nose along your neck, to feel your breath catch. I would see a flush in your skin. How you would be embarrassed that you were so sensitive and nervous because it's me."

Maura swallowed convulsively, her free hand clutching her forearm and squeezing hard "I would make you look at me Jane. I would want you to see how much I needed you before I'd draw your lips to mine and pour every second I've imagined kissing you into that moment. "

Jane bit her bottom lip hard, the pain doing nothing to quell the sensation running over them, the words blooming deep inside causing her splay a hand on her abdomen and press roughly. "Jesus Maura."

Maura heard the whispered statement, the rough edges making her breathing increase, punctuating her words. "The kiss would meld us together. I'd feel your breasts pressing; I'd feel your nipples, hard and defined. Your body would tell me Jane. It would show me that you wanted me and I would meld us together so you'd feel the way each stroke of our lips would make my hips push into yours."

Jane groaned the images and sensations forcing her legs to squeeze together. "I know the minute your body was pressed into mine I'd bring my hands to your waist, relieved that I was finally free to feel if your skin is as soft as it looks, to trace your ribs and learn what spots would make you gasp. To feel the underside of your breasts, to allow the weight of them to fill my hands, to have the chance to remove your clothes, at last getting rid of any barriers between us."

"Jane." Maura's voice broke lightly over her name, taking on a husky nuance, a new subtlety and Jane couldn't stop her hips shifting in primal understanding.

Jane's active participation caught Maura off guard and the visceral response to her voice pounded between her legs, her own hand covering her breast as if that could quell the need, her increased breathing forcing the peak of her nipple to brush along her palm.

Maura fought for control of her body as she spoke into the phone, the plastic warm on her cheek. "I'd draw my finger over and around your breast, loving every change in texture, using just the tip on your nipple, letting it rise before bringing my head down to memorize the smell of your skin and savoring the first gasp the touch of my lips would bring."

Jane couldn't stop the pressure between her legs that quaked with the wave of her pulse. Her own fingers starting to lightly trace familiar folds. Swallowing repeatedly, trying to form words, unconscious truth clawing out. "Every spot I could touch or taste I would. My lips would savor every dip and contour traveling down your body. I would finally able to see my secret come to life. To own that moment only reserved for your lovers as your body felt my touch reach deep inside, needing to be close enough to feel your heart around my hand."

The eloquence was stunning and Maura was beyond controlling her response, her own touch physically drawing Jane's words onto her body, the lines blurring between imagination and reality, driving the pressure to pound through her torso, blooming on the edge of escape.

She closed her eyes, sheer necessity to carry Jane with her forcing the words out in breathless staccato, her voice rolling and pitching with the quake of her body. "You would feel my mouth tracing your folds, my hands toying against the twitching muscle of your abdomen. My touch would travel back and forth over the muscles of your thigh, before outlining your entrance, waiting for your hips to draw me in, finally pressing my tongue over, around and against you." Maura's own hand pantomimed her words on her own body. So close, she was just so close.

Hearing Maura on the verge, the sounds painting a vivid image in her mind that drove Jane to the edge, her heartbeat pounding, echoing in the twitch of her thigh, the pain in her chest and in the pulse of her tongue on the roof of her mouth. A shaky touch to her own clitoris sent her flying, Maura's name breaking out on a gasp. "Oh my god Maura, oh my god"

Jane's voice quaking over the line sparked white hot over and through Maura's body, spiraling out from her thighs, ripping up her abdomen to land as a flash of lightening across her eyes and loud, keening gasps from her mouth.

The sound of Maura's orgasm left Jane shaking; her phone clutched tightly in her hand, desperate for the connection the gentle breathless panting traveling over the phone provided.

Maura's hand clutched the fabric of her pajama top against her stomach, her tears coming unchecked, the magnitude and the consequence of the moment rotating in her mind.

With the visceral experience of her own orgasm trembling over her, Jane was unsurprised to hear quiet sobs coming over the line. She knew this woman so well. If she wasn't already in love with her, she knew she'd have fallen right at this moment.

"Shhhh, Maura, sweetie, it's okay, I'm right here, do you hear me? I'm right here. I need you leave the phone on. I need to know you you're there."

The replying laughter was whisper quiet and shaky but it was there. "How do you always do that Jane? Know what I need?"

Jane smiled, the natural answer dancing on her tongue but simple truth would also work "I know you Maura." She drew a hand through her hair, mentally and physically drained. "I'm so tired Maura, but I'm kind of hoping, that we could maybe, just leave the phone on until I go to sleep?"

Maura closed her eyes against the desperate instinct to touch Jane. If she wasn't already in love with her, she knew she would have fallen right at this moment.


	3. Chapter 3

Please see Ch 1 for all the disclaimers and then some

A/N at the end of this chapter... please read it and let me know what you think

* * *

The flight between JFK and Logan was blissfully quiet with the sunset spreading over the horizon. The evolving colors provided Maura the ideal excuse to lean her forehead on the window. She was brutally cognizant that each mile brought her closer to the very real alteration to her relationship with Jane, the precise characterization of which was yet to be defined.

She had overslept this morning and her phone battery had been dead when she woke up. She plugged it in during her rush to check out and it was only as she sat down on the hotel patio bistro that she had a moment to think.

Maura had ordered absently considering last night's experience and its logical effects as she stared at phone sitting on the table. People flew by, hurrying place to place. Occasionally a couple would make her pause to study them. Couple watching had always been something of a curiosity draw, something she knew in abstract she should want and so she analyzed them, watching interactions and nuances. Now she studied them out of envy, jealous of their security, safe in the knowledge they belonged to each other.

If her food tasted like anything she couldn't be sure. She left her coffee black on purpose, letting smell and bite focus her attention. Part of her desperately wanted to turn the phone back on. Part of her couldn't face the result.

At the heart of the matter was the feeling that the phone had already stolen one of the most pivotal moments between she and Jane. Maura absolutely refused to waste the next, for better or worse.

When the ding rang through the plane cabin Maura let the crowd pull her off the plane and out through security. Frowning she looked for the driver carrying a sign with her name on it, unable to spot Boston Coach anyplace. She took a deep breath. She was going to have to turn on her phone now. Letting go of her luggage she was rummaging in her purse, looking up to scan for the driver when she just froze.

Jane had spent the morning typing out text messages that were deleted before she sent them off and pulling up Maura's number and staring at it. Summoning whatever courage she could she called but voicemail instantly picked up, making her stomach knot, causing her to press end before leaving a message. She knew Maura enough to understand this was her move. Finally she typed a simple message out and pressed send, but it still didn't feel right.

She wasted most of the softball game checking her phone and by the time it was over, she barely waved goodbye, leaving the celebration and invitations for a drink behind.

Jane arrived well before Maura's flight landed. Nervous anticipation had her checking the arrival board every few minutes. Watching the 'on time' notification change over to 'at the gate', Jane was rather certain it was possible to drop dead from fright no matter what Maura said.

Her back to the wall she ran her eyes over the crowd until she located a familiar form, the fear combining with the relief from finally seeing her. Maura was beautiful and real and artfully walking towards her. Jane knew second she was spotted. The immobile moment of surprise and then the quiet look of joy and approval that let Jane knew she had made the right choice as she walked over.

Jane was vital and so very alive standing in front of her, eyes soft in welcome. Maura stepped into her, enjoying the gentle shiver over her body, the quickening of her pulse from where their bodies touched. She reached a hand up to gently smooth the edge of Jane's jacket collar. "This is unexpected. "

"I needed to come tell you in person that you were right, sometimes connecting on the phone is a way for separated lovers to reaffirm their bond. But I also needed to tell you that as powerful as last night was, it doesn't hold a candle to this." Jane brought her index finger up to gently trace along Maura's forehead, cheek and neck, reveling in the freedom to assume the intimate touch.

Maura didn't hesitate just brought her hand up to cup Jane's cheek before brushing the gentlest of kisses on her lips, mindful of the public setting, whispering in her ear "Lovers, I like the sound of that. Define that for me Jane."

Jane looped their arms together, grabbing Maura's luggage as they walked towards the exit. "It means that I have this best friend that I am madly in love with and luckily for me she seems to return the feeling."

Maura took her opposite hand across her body to squeeze the bicep of the arm she was holding "I would say it's safe to say she does love you very much."

Jane nodded not hiding her smile. "Just admit it, this all happened because you went to New York and realized I really am completely full of EPIC'ness isn't it?"

Maura bumped their shoulders together laughing. "Let's not push your luck any further today."

* * *

A/N – This came about from a story idea from 'tattoo me1969' who sent along the idea of a first time story but only over the phone.

The reason this ended up written? Purely frustration on my part because I personally had a hard time figuring out how to make something like that happen in any sort of realistic fashion. I believe it COULD happen for two people IRL… I just couldn't figure out how to create it out of words. Again, creative writing is a recent revival on my part.

So since I spent a week sketching it out in my head and a weekend trying to put it into words I'm going to become an absolute review whore here and ask people to drop a thought and let me know if I pulled it off. Believable yes, no? Characterization for our leading ladies somewhat believable? Tasteful enough?


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